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Christine Raber, Ph.D., right, associate professor in the Master of Occupational Therapy program at Shawnee State University, presented research at the Third International Institute on the Model of Human Occupation, Stockholm, Sweden, in October, along with another occupational therapist, Jane Melton, Ph.D., left, 2gether NHS Trust, Gloucestershire, England. They also presented the Mary Collaborative at the College of Occupational Therapists 37th Annual Conference and Exhibition in Glasgow, Scotland in June, along with Kirsty Forsyth, Ph.D. Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh, Scotland, not in photo.

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Christine Raber, Ph.D., associate professor, Master of Occupational Therapy program at Shawnee State University, presented at two conferences in Europe, one in Scotland and one in Sweden.

Raber presented research about the Mary Collaborative at the College of Occupational Therapists 37th Annual Conference and Exhibition in Glasgow, Scotland, in June.

In October, at the Third International Institute on the Model of Human Occupation, Stockholm, Sweden, she met with Mary Collaborative co-founders, Dr. Kirsty Forsyth and Dr. Jane Melton, and presented research that examined occupational therapists’ use of the Remotivation Process, an intervention aimed at supporting motivation to engage in daily activities.

Ashley Hupp, Sarah Quinlan and Brian Stephenson, three Master of Occupational Therapy students at Shawnee State, worked with Raber on the research presented in Sweden. The study is part of the Mary Collaborative initiative.

The Mary Collaborative is in collaboration with Queen Margaret University, 2gether NHS Foundation Trust, NHS Lothian, and Shawnee State University.

Joining her in Scotland were Dr. Kirsty Forsyth, Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh, Scotland, and Dr. Jane Melton, 2gether NHS Trust, Gloucestershire, England.

The Mary Collaborative is an innovative international collaborative designed to create and support learning communities that will result in improved quality of care for people with dementia and their caregivers.

This collaborative was initiated by a mutual connection with a woman called Mary who has dementia. All of the participants within this collaborative connected with Mary’s story during the first Model of Human Occupation (MOHO) International Institute.

The initiative is driven by a desire to investigate how to better serve the health needs of people like Mary.

“This initiative is driven by a desire to investigate how to better serve the heath needs of people like Mary using MOHO,” Raber said. “The Mary Collaborative’s structure is an academic/practice partnership based on principles of mentorship and

collaboration.”

Collaborators represent practitioners, academics, and students across two university settings and three provider organizations offering occupational therapy services to persons with dementia.

“This core group of academics and practitioners will drive forward MOHO research within the area of dementia care and will act as a catalyst to bring together the international community,” she said. “A range of research is being designed and initiated to develop methods of using MOHO to support people with dementia to engage in meaningful daily activities. The study presented in Sweden is one example of the kind of research we are doing to meet the goals of the Mary Collaborative.”

The Mary Collaborative initiative was presented in Scotland, and in Sweden, members of the Collaborative discussed progress and outlined strategies to continue to move the initiative forward.